February 25, 2015
Great coaches build sports skills and teach teamwork - but often, the most important work they do isn't about athletics at all. Billy Watterson ’15.5 is the founder of Beat the Streets PVD.
February 25, 2015
Do know someone with world-changing ideas? We're always on the hunt for great stories to share.
February 25, 2015
September 26, 2014
Welcome to Swearer Sparks, an online platform for social change and storytelling where the Brown University community can spark new ideas and connections. Learn more.
September 26, 2014
Over 25 audio stories from community leaders boldly and creatively tackling social issues in Providence. Listen in.
Recent Stories on Sparks
March 2, 2015
Meredith is a co-coordinator of Algebra in Motion, a program that provides math and science tutoring at Hope High School, both in class and after school. She is a junior concentrating in Applied Mathematics – Economics.
February 28, 2015
Jennifer is a member of the 2014-15 College Advising Corps at Brown. The College Advising Corps’ mission is
to serve first generation low-income minority students within the Providence Public High School District and ensure that they are provided access to the resources and preparation to apply to a four year university. Jennifer is
currently serving her year at the Corps’ newest host site; Providence Career and Technical Academy, its only partnership with a vocational high school.
February 26, 2015
Andrew Kaplan '15 and Sam Gilman '15 think the millennial voice is not being heard in Washington D.C. Through Common Sense Action (CSA), they strive to empower and mobilize millenials – red, blue, and in between – through CSA chapters across 40 college campuses nationwide. In the fall of 2013, these chapters formulated The Agenda for Generational Equity (AGE), the nation’s first millennial bipartisan policy agenda. This past midterm election, CSA successfully registered 3,310 voters across the country.
February 23, 2015
Read reflections and see photos from some of this year's Innovate Winter Break interns, a program of the Social Innovation Initiative and Brown CareerLAB that provides two-week mini-internships during winter break at organizations dedicated to social justice, impact, and entrepreneurship in Boston and NYC.
February 17, 2015
Having people you matter to and who you know believe in you is huge.
February 15, 2015
Sarah Skeels is a professor, an activist, and a world-class sailor. In her popular course "Pathology to Power: Disability, Health, and Community," she teaches students to think critically about how disability fits into the world around them. But before they learn to think about disability, they need to learn how to talk about it.
February 11, 2015
I’m always proud of the moments that anything I write, or publish, or edit, or work on, touches on something real. Maybe it reaches someone who had, but didn’t know how to articulate, a similar experience. Maybe it provides that person with words.
In conversation, Chanelle Adams chooses her words carefully. Language is important to the Editor-in-Chief of Bluestockings, Brown’s feminist media platform.
A senior concentrating in Science and Technology studies, she also claims she “majored in extracurriculars” during her time at Brown - she works for the archives of Anne Faust-Sterling, coordinates the Multiracial Heritage Series for the Brown Center for Students of Color, manages the Bluestockings blog, and tutors for BRYTE, among other endeavors and programs. Even further off-the-beaten track, she worked at the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health in Providence. We chatted about how her views of feminism and language have developed throughout her Brown experience.
January 30, 2015
Sophie Duncan '16 was the Project Assistant and Interviewer for Imagine Providence, an audio storytelling project on Swearer Sparks that features local organizations of all shapes, sizes, and missions. Imagine Providence is a resource to inform students and residents about the inspiring, amazing, and innovative efforts of local groups, and catalyze each listener to explore and learn more from leading organizations in Providence. Here, Sophie reflects on her role.